Maybe Gordon Campbell is the problem

Remember that old Meatloaf hit, "Two out of Three ain't Bad?" I can't help but wonder if that tune isn't bouncing around in the head of Premier Gordon Campbell these days after losing the second of his key lieutenants.
Back in September it was Christy Clark, the former Deputy Premier, Minister of Children and Family Development and Education Minister. In December, it was Gary Collins, his former finance minister. It hasn't been a good autumn for Campbell cabinet-wise. As explanation in both cases we've heard the most tired litany in all of politics -- they wanted to spend more time with their families. Laudable intentions to be sure, but forgive me for being a tad sceptical. People in public life know what they're getting into long before they get into it. That's why those who genuinely want to spend time with their families avoid public life. Consequently when I hear someone like Collins suddenly longing for home and hearth after 13 years in the bearpit of B.C. politics, I wonder what's really up. Is he looking for a less hectic line of employment? Being CEO of a startup airline company will hardly offer that. Does he genuinely want to spend more time with his new family and young children? If he does, good on him for that. But I have to confess I do have a niggling suspicion that something else is operating here.
Just what that something is I can't say for sure, but I don't mind saying what's making me suspicious. Oddly enough, it was Clark's resignation Sept. 16 that might be the tipoff. When Clark stepped down she was arguably the most popular member of the cabinet. Our own MLA Bill Bennett called her announcement "a shocker." What's more telling, however, is that Clark made her announcement while her boss, the Premier, was out of province at a conference. She left Campbell to find out through the media like everyone else in what was obviously a calculated and deliberate snub. In other words, actions speak louder than words and leave only one conclusion -- Ms. Clark has no use for Mr. Campbell.
Fast forward to Dec. 14 and you have an even higher profile cabinet member giving Campbell the heave ho. Unlike Clark, however, Collins was at least polite about it, grinning beside Campbell at the news conference and exchanging compliments with the Premier. But the bottom line remains the same, another key minister has bailed out.And this one is going to hurt. In addition to being the hard-nosed finance minister that balanced the budget by draconian cuts to government services and author of a billion dollar government surplus, Collins was the Liberal campaign co-chair and an indispensable member of the government's re-election team. This will be a big blow to a government that just suffered a shocking byelection loss in its own backyard of Surrey-Panorama Ridge where the NDP took 53 per cent of the vote. And Collins' own riding of Vancouver-Fairview may no longer be safe because of a "star" candidate recruited by
the NDP.
But the bigger question is what is it about Gordon Campbell that inspires so little loyalty from his key supporters? According to the latest Ipsos-Reid poll, 63 per cent of British Columbians think Campbell and the Liberals can't be trusted to keep their promises. Close to the same number think the government balanced the budget on the backs of the poor and vulnerable. Polls don't tell the whole story, of course, because the same poll also shows Campbell leading NDP leader Carol James 48 per cent to 35 per cent as choice for best premier. However, when you consider Campbell has been a fixture on the B.C. political scene for almost 20 years and James is a rank unknown, there's cold comfort for the Liberals in these figures.
Perhaps the most disturbing factor the Liberals face in the upcoming election is Campbell's unpopularity amongst women. Poll after poll show the Premier earning a much higher approval rating from male voters compared to female. This is hardly surprising when you consider that many of the government's cuts have been in areas like health care, education, social services, seniors' support, day care and special needs. And this is not even mentioning the cutting of women's centres funding across the province. Regardless of the justification for some of the cuts, the Campbell Liberals don't come across as a kinder, gentler, nurturing government. They may be good for looking after the bottom line, but they’re not so good at helping children, seniors and those in need. Perhaps this is what women resent.
Whatever the case, it's shaping up to be an interesting election contest next spring, and the very fact it can be called a contest at all, is quite a comedown for the Liberals. They still have to be considered the favourites to win May 17, but the NDP is back in the race and the Liberals have only themselves to thank for that.
Or perhaps Gordon Campbell.
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Overkill on logepole pine beetle

By GERRY WARNER
Staff Writer, Cranbrook Daily Townsman
Nov. 26/04
Trouble is brewing in the woods again, but not the usual tree-huggers vs loggers variety. This trouble identifies itself by turning the forest a sickly red colour. When that happens, foresters know another upswing in the mountain pine beetle is on the way and all hell breaks loose. And hell may well be the operative word here because some people believe the Ministry of Forests (MOF) in its zeal to deal with the mountain pine beetle epidemic may just be over-reacting a tad.
The issue came up at the Kimberley Nature Park Society AGM Wednesday when society members were informed that the MOF has earmarked vast reaches of the province for "aggressive" pine beetle control and one of the areas so designated is the Kimberley Nature Park, which does not yet enjoy full park status and is therefore in forestry terms considered a timber supply area. And this, of course, sets up the scenario that Nature Park supporters fear the most -- logging the park. No one is saying this will happen yet, but it's clearly one of the options being considered. And this is unfortunate because there is good reason to question whether the MOF's "aggressive" pine beetle strategy is justified anywhere, little alone in a park or an area trying very hard to become a park.
The provincial government announced its pine beetle strategy in 2001, greatly reducing stumpage charges and boosting the annual allowable cut. Since then, it's been cut, cut, cut as lodgepole pine, the pine beetle's primary host, gets liquidated from one end of the province to the other. This pleases forest companies, who are reaping huge profits from harvesting cheap lodgepole pine at a time of strong markets. It also pleases the MOF as it promotes its "aggressive" approach to pine beetle management. But is it good for the forest? Justin Calof doesn't think so. Calof is a forest management specialist for the Sierra Club of Canada and he says the Great Lodgepole Pine Liquidation campaign is threatening the integrity of the forest as a whole, and in the long-term, undermining communities that depend on the forest. "The increased harvest levels being proposed go far beyond the capacity of the ecosystem, he said in a recent release. "This strategy is not only bad for the environment; in the long run it's bad for communities." Calof quotes scientific studies that demonstrate serious environmental degradation from large-scale salvage operations of lodgepole pine that are now underway in the Interior including the East Kootenay. Because salvage operations remove excessive amounts of wood from the forest, they deliver few, if any, of the benefits of natural disturbances which leave the bulk of the forest ecosystem intact. "You can't take all of the wood out of these areas and expect the ecosystem to recover to pre-salvage productivity," he says. "Even dead standing trees play a critical role in forest functioning."
I'm not a professional forester, but I've taken a few university-level forestry courses, fought forest fires for a decade in my youth and spent more time in the woods than many RPF's, who because of the downsizing of the Forest Ministry over the years, are forced to spend the bulk of their time behind a desk. And like many others who spend a lot of time outdoors, I've learned to respect Mother Nature and not to mess with her. And this includes the pine beetle, which is a natural component of the forest with a specific role to play. And that role is to remove lodgepole pine from the forest if fire doesn't do it first. And the pine beetle does a far better job than fire of getting rid of lodgepole pine because unlike fire, which is often a catastrophic event destroying everything and bringing the ecosystem back to square one, the pine beetle kills gradually with little or no site disturbance enabling new species of trees to come up in the understory and replace the dense, scraggly lodgepole pine monoculture above it with a new vigorous and diverse forest that eventually hits a dynamic equilibrium known as old growth, which once covered most of B.C. until man ventured on the scene and thought he could "manage" things better. Thirty years ago, the forestry text books referred to lodgepole pine as a "weed tree" not worthy of being harvested. It's role was to act as a successional species, preparing the way for a superior, more stable forest to follow. But back in the 60's and 70's when industrial forestry became the norm in B.C., lodgepole pine became the darling of foresters and their government masters because its short life cycle of 60 to 90 years, promised quick returns for cash-strapped governments. So lodgepole pine became the number one species planted in the province setting us up for the "disaster" we're experiencing today.
In other words it was bad forest policy of successive governments that got us into this mess and we shouldn't allow them to get out of it by clear-cutting the province of lodgepole pine including precious places like the Kimberley Nature Park.
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